Less Than

Life looks bigger in the distance.  In actual living, we often find it is comprised mostly of small deeds and seeming unimportant overtures.  These realizations can invoke dissatisfaction and disappointment.

Accomplishments may fail set standards.  Though we know we cannot climb every mountain, most of us hope to scale a hill or two in our lifetimes.  Hoped-for expectations can prove hopeless and recede with the passage of time.

Resources run scarce in many lives.  There is no guarantee of premeditated success, and finances are cyclical in most lives.  Each of us has experienced physical limitations, and, for some, inaccessibility of life-affirming freedoms has been heartbreaking.

There is scarcely an area of life untouched by sense of loss, suffering of deprivation or sadness of unfulfilled dreams.  Uneven life experiences may be easier to handle than the boding sense that we, somehow, could have affected our outcomes for the better.  Maybe, it was partly our faults.

In considering assets, it is important to understand orientation.  Progress in life is facilitated or fractured by ancestry.  Where did a person begin their trek, and how prepared were they to confront adversity?  Life is unforgiving, and provisions are needed for the journey.  It is hard to succeed on meager fare.

It is easier to be all you can be with seminal instruction and support.  I encourage people to accept offered helps due to the scarcity of information and input.  People will not often offer, so don’t scorn opportunities.

The worth of our accomplishments suffers or shines by comparisons.  The tendency is to philosophize outcomes failing of projections, but this does not mean such musings are inaccurate.  Worthwhile causes may disappoint from certain views, but inspire admiration from others.

We cannot adequately assess import without considering existing assets, effort expended and external factors.  It’s hard to win any game from a disadvantaged position regardless of will though each must strive with the tools at hand.     

Paul told us that comparisons with others are unwise.  He stressed that we each have unique roles in life and the Kingdom of God.  Our individual talents and abilities are interconnected, and we are to understand our need of one another.  This spiritual principle works in every area of life.  It is difficult to be fulfilled outside community, and every member is important.

The Old Covenant pictures God as a potter forming vessels of His choosing.  As such, He creates each one unique for His purposes.  The vessel does not question the Maker on the manner and selection of creation.  The value of the vessel resides in its facility, and we find the simple creations of God sublime in use.

And God is able to remake messes as surely as a potter remolds misshapen clay.  God breathes life into the deflated and kindles hope within the broken.  Prideful expectation is not Divine inspiration, and the failures in our lives may be the opportunities God uses to show His power.

It is impossible to live without loss or miss opportunities and subsequent feelings of failure are roadblocks to future accomplishments.  While we never treat faults lightly, we understand that repentance preceded restoration by God’s means in His time.  In the end, nothing is unforeseen or unmanageable to God.

It’s not my world- I’m just living in it.

Sterl